HEBRON - Dane Black had a message for Lakewood football coach Jason Lee recently in the weight room.

"He told me, 'coach, I need to get this taken care of, so I can get back to football,'" Lee recalled.

"This," in the case of the Lancers' stellar junior lineman and heavyweight wrestler, is cancer. During the district wrestling tournament, a mass in his groin area was officially diagnosed as carcinoma.

"He's been dealing with this for a year and a half, and finally got it diagnosed," said Lakewood wrestling coach Roger Atwood. "They originally thought it was a hernia, or muscle pull. He went to Children's Hospital, and they sent him to the James Center.

"The week of the district, he got the biopsy done on Tuesday, and he still wrestled on Friday," Atwood said. "When he came to me on Saturday, he had tears in his eyes, because he knew his season was done. He's wrestled with it and played football with it for a year and a half. There's no doubt he would keep wrestling and playing until he's physically unable to do it. He's a tough cookie."

A GoFundMe page has been started to raise money for the Black family. He is to be checked this week to see if the cancer has spread, and is expected to begin chemotherapy. Lee said he's having T-shirts made to help with the fundraising.

"We're in awe over the support he's gotten," Atwood said. "We set a goal of $500 starting out. We had that in two hours. Then, it was $1,000, and we had that in three hours. Then it was $1,500, then over $2,000. We have to keep raising it."

Black is popular at Lakewood with both teammates and coaches.

"You seldom have kids like him that come along," Lee said. "Every week, we select captains for football, and he was chosen eight times as a junior, more than anyone else. He's on my leadership council.

"He speaks out and holds others accountable. He's never complained about this. He's the type of kid that never complains."

Fellow Lancers' junior lineman Mason Albanese has played with Black since middle school.

"He's one of the most quiet kids you'll know," Albanese said. "He's not the most talkative, but once you get to know him, he opens right up. I voted for him every week as a captain."

People at Lakewood have no doubt that Black will get through this. "We'll ride this out with him," Atwood said.

"If anyone is going to do it, it is him," Lee said. "He has the right attitude, about everything. He's tough, hard-nosed and determined."

Albanese was one of the first to hear of Black's diagnosis.

"The first thing I thought was, he'll be fine," Albanese said. "He'll press through it and get better. There's a lot of brotherhood here. We stick together, and we're going to make sure that Dane makes it through."